Author Profiles
Ohio has a rich literary heritage as well as some wonderful contemporary authors. Learn more about them here! You can sort by various categories and see who has participated in our annual book festival by using the category search on the left, or search by keyword (including partial author names) by using the search field on the right.
For more information about our collection and programming for authors, please click on the "Authors" main tab above.
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Michelle Houts
Michelle Houts is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books for young readers, ranging from colorful, engaging picture books to adventurous middle-grade novels. Her newest book, HOPEFULLY THE SCARECROW (Flamingo Philomel, 2023) celebrates the power of hope and friendship when a scarecrow finds he has little control over his circumstances. Houts writes from a restored 1894 one-room schoolhouse. She is the creator of the 52 Letter Challenge. When she’s not writing, she is editing or encouraging young readers and writers through school visits and workshops.
Anna Lee Huber
Anna Lee Huber is the USA Today bestselling and Daphne award-winning author of the Lady Darby Mysteries, the Verity Kent Mysteries, and the Gothic Myths series, as well as the forthcoming historical fiction novel Sisters of Fortune: A Novel of the Titanic, and the anthology The Deadly Hours. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in music and minored in psychology. She currently resides in Indiana with her family and is hard at work on her next novel. Visit her online at http://www.annaleehuber.com.
Annie Hunter Eriksen
Annie Hunter Eriksen is from Wooster, Ohio. Originally from Columbus, she came for the College of Wooster (’13), but stayed after falling in love with Wooster’s undeniable charm and realizing this town has the best ice cream in the world. Annie lives and breathes comics, cats, and coffee and had her first son in November 2022, whom she named after a superhero. Along Came a Radioactive Spider is about famed Marvel artist Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man. This is her second book. Find Annie at http://www.aheriksen.com and on Instagram at @ah_eriksen.
Ryan Huntley
Ryan Huntley is a recent Summa Cum Laude graduate of Upper Arlington High School in Ohio, where he lives with his family in a house his Maltese, Rudy, is kind enough to share with them. A member of the National Honor Society and the Cum Laude Society, an International Baccalaureate Diploma candidate, and a National Merit Finalist, Ryan is pursuing a higher education in the field of computer science with an emphasis on game design at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is currently studying Japanese and hopes one day to live and work in Japan. When not involved in academic endeavors, Ryan can be found performing with various choral ensembles, traveling the world, and playing games until just a bit too late at night.
Allegra Hyde
Allegra Hyde is the author of the story collection The Last Catastrophe, an Editors’ Choice selection at The New York Times. Her debut novel Eleutheria was named a “Best Book of 2022” by The New Yorker, shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize, and named a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award. Her first story collection, Of This New World, won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award. Hyde has received four Pushcart Prizes and an O. Henry Prize. Her work has also been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Travel Writing, The Best Small Fictions, and Best of the Net. Her fiction, nonfiction, and humor writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, and BOMB, among other venues. Hyde has received fellowships and grants from the MacDowell Artist Residency, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, The Elizabeth George Foundation, the Lucas Artist Residency Program, the Jentel Foundation, The Studios at Key West, VCCA, the U.S. Fulbright Commission, and elsewhere. She lives and writes with her partner, the novelist Ariel Delgado Dixon. https://www.allegrahyde.com/
Manuel Iris
Manuel Iris (Mexico, 1983). Poet Laureate Emeritus of the City of Cincinnati, Ohio (2018-2020). He received the “Merida” National award of poetry (Mexico, 2009) for his book Notebook of dreams, and the Rodulfo Figueroa Regional award of poetry for his book The disguises of fire (Mexico, 2014). In 2016two different anthologies of his poetic work were published: The naked light, in Venezuela; and Before the mystery, in El Salvador. His first bilingual anthology of poems, Traducir el silencio/Translating silence was published in New York in 2018. This book won two different awards in the International Latino Book Awards in Los Angeles, California, in that same year. In 2021, he became a member of the prestigious System of Art Creators of Mexico (Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte). His latest book “the parting present/Lo que se ira” received the Reader’s choice award from the Ohioana Library Association, and was also recognized at the 2022 International Latino Book Awards. Learn more at: https://manueliris.com/
Teshauna L. Isaac
Author Teshauna L. Isaac was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, to the parents of Eugene and Maxine Isaac. She is the second oldest of three children. Teshauna gave her life to Christ and was baptized at an early age at St Mark’s Baptist Church, under the leadership of the late Pastor I.J. Johnson. Elder Isaac accepted her calling and on September 28, 2014, she was licensed to preach the gospel. On July 30, 2017, she was ordained as an elder by the authority and order of the State of Ohio Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship Int’l. Teshauna walks in her purpose and calling as an intercessory prayer leader and teacher.
Elder Isaac attended and graduated from Jesup W. Scott High School. She went on to attend The University of Toledo, earning a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. She recently graduated from Spring Arbor University with a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health and released her first published book BLACKOUT (May 2022). She currently works full-time at Goodwill Industries of NW Ohio as the Program Manager for the Stay the Course reentry program. More recently she has started a new career as a Multisystemic Therapist at the Zepf Center.
She is the proud mother of two sons, Darius and Greg, one daughter, Jazmin, and grandmother to London. Her interests include exercising, reading, traveling, shopping, listening to music, spending time with her family and friends, volunteering in the local community, and serving at her local church. Learn more: http://teshaunaisaac.com/
M. C. Jeter
M. C. Jeter is the indie author of The Gems, a new adult fantasy novel. She is set to graduate from the Ohio State University in May 2024 with a BS in Neuroscience and a minor in American Sign Language. For fun, M. C. likes to read, write, dance, sing and play on her Nintendo Switch. As of right now, M. C. has many diverse stories bouncing around in her brain that she is so excited to share with the world. M. C. Jeter began writing her debut novel in fourth grade and as she grew, her main character did too. From starting at 10 years old to ending at 17, Ruby, the main character of The Gems, will take you on an adventure full of love, regret, and challenges.
Richard O Jones
After twenty-five years writing the first draft of history as a writer and editor for his hometown newspaper, the Hamilton Journal-News, Richard O Jones left the grind of daily journalism in the fall of 2013 for a life of true crime. He is the author of two books on the History Press imprint, Cincinnati’s Savage Seamstress: The Shocking Edythe Klumpp Murder Scandal (October, 2014) and Ohio Bluebeard: The Strange Confessions of Alfred Knapp (Spring, 2015), and maintains the True Crime Historian blog, where he remembers the scoundrels, scandals and scourges of America’s past and publishes the Two-Dollar Terror series of novella-length ebooks. Mr. Jones, a creative writing graduate of Miami University, Ohio, spent most of his career as an arts journalist and has won numerous awards for his reviews and profiles. In 2004, he was named a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts Theatre and Musical Theatre program at the Annenberg School of Journalism. The Ohio Associated Press named him Feature Writer of the Year in 2011. Since leaving the newspaper world, Mr. Jones has become an active member of his local history community as a board member of the Butler County Historical Society, a member of the History Speakers Bureau and a regular presenter at Miami University in a program titled “Yesterday’s News.” The Michael J. Colligan History Project of Miami University presented Mr. Jones with a Special Recognition for Contributions to Public History for his coverage of the Centennial Commemoration of the Great Flood of 1913. Visit him online at http://www.truecrimehistorian.com.
Inez Heller Jones
From a very young age, Inez Heller Jones loved to read and write. As the youngest of eight children, many days found her reading under the large kitchen table, completely covered by the tablecloth, where she engrossed herself in faraway places while hiding from her siblings! Her avid love of reading later led her to write short stories, poems, and articles. In 2013, she self-published They Call Me Blessed! her true, inspirational journey of prayer, faith, and endurance during one of the most difficult periods of her life. In 2017, a dramatized version of this story was produced by Unshackled for radio audiences worldwide. The episodes are available for listening at Unshackled.org as a series entitled “Inez Jones, Part 1” and “Part 2.” In 2024, the book was republished with the assistance of a professional publishing company.
A central Ohio transplant from west Michigan, some of Inez’s many accomplishments included Michigan Women’s Commission Honoree for leadership in state, business, education, government, and community service; Chairwoman of the Muskegon Heights Michigan Education Assessment Program Task Force; Muskegon County Museum Trustee; Legislative Committee Chair of the Muskegon County Black Women’s Political Caucus; and three time candidate for the Ninety-Second District state house seat. In They Call Me Blessed! Inez is introduced to readers as wife, empty nester, single mom, and in-home caregiver.
https://www.christianfaithpublishing.com/books/?book=they-call-me-blessed